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Wednesday, 30 October 2013

More progress pics of my bag. (Secret - the bag is done, but still need to take photos)

Exterior and Lining sewn.

Nearly done.. I had a few challenges at this point. That zipper closure is now recessed, due to the thickness I was unable to sew around the corners. I secured those points with rivets which I'll discuss later.

Handles in contructions.. Using the awesome tutorial by Emmaline Bags.

Now here was where I hit a stumbling block.. I couldn't figure out how to sew these handles on. In the end I just used rivets to secure them. That top rivet also secures the top where I couldn't sew around the corner seam.

And here is also where I made my big mistake.. I wanted those handle tabs right in the middle.. so I installed the rivets right on the side seam.. so of course the hole broke the thread and started unravelling.. eek.. luckily I left the lining opening unclosed, so was able go in and restitch around the holes. On the other side I installed them slightly of center. Cause I didn't know what else to do..

I also wanted to make a crossbody strap, but since I installed that top rivet on the handle, it doesn't fold down..so using a crossbody strap would be awkward with the handle upright and I decided to forgo it.

I reused a zipper pull to highlight the hidden zipper pocket in the front..

My next post I'll post photos and the final bag and show you the bag that inspired this. You can tell me if I did well recreating it! ﻿

Friday, 25 October 2013

Being on vacation for the last couple weeks, I haven't been able to work on my bag for Purse Palooza until today. Let's ignore that laundry and unpacking ok?

I had my exterior and lining piece ready for assembly. The bag is going to have a zipper closure so the first thing I did was to sew the zipper on. I needed to use my walking foot, my previous attempts with the zipper foot with this faux leather failed.

Luckily my zipper was a few inches longer than my bag so I could move the zipper head completely out of the way. I then moved my needle to the right so I could get closer to edge. The bag is assembled similiar to a zipper pouch. But instead of sewing wrong sides together to the zipper, I turned the edges and then top stitched to the zipper.

Now my brain must have been functioning slow, because I begun sewing and then realized my lining was facing the wrong way.. so I had to unpick what I stitched.. and there was one part where my orginal sewing was a bit wonky so I didn't sew over the same holes.. sigh..

but I wasn't going to make that piece over, so I got over it and continued..

Zipper closure attached.

The bag is basically a squared bottom bag. If you have seen my previous post, that vertical seam is a pocket. Since the pocket couldn't run through the bottom, the bottom piece is a separate piece.. I sewed that on and installed purse feet

Having the extra long zipper was very useful. Since now the exterior is basically a tube when the zipper is closed, having the longer zipper made it easier to work with the bag.

At this point I decided to call it a day. I need to figure out how I'm going to attach the single shoulder strap. And my next step is making that strap, strap tabs and an adjustable crossbody strap. Usually my least favourite part!

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

This really should be "Building a bag in really small increments". I was able to do a little more work on the bag. I'm off on vacation soon, so I'm trying to get this made in 1/2hr - 1hr time slots when I find the time from packing/shopping for packing/packing. And I'm really slow, so not too much is getting done in that time.. Anyway, here's what I did

Attached a collar to the top of the exterior panels.. both are done, just took photo in the midst of working on them.

Pockets pockets added to the lining. Your standard slip pocket with pen sections on one side and zipper pocket on the other side.

I misplaced the screw driver to remove my walking foot, which I needed to do to attach my zipper foot.. Not wanting to spend my time searching for it I tried installing the zipper with the walking foot and my needle position to the left. Worked out, phew! Now I still need to look for that screw driver!

And that's all I have done :( Well at least I have something to look forward to when I'm back from vacation in a couple wee